The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board fund, which provides defined pension benefits to the state’s public educational employees, posted an investment return of 12.0%, net of investment management fees, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017. This exceeded the annual actuarial target of 7.25%.

The fund also reached a new high in assets at $12.3 billion, an increase of nearly $1 billion for the fiscal year. In addition, the fund distributed benefits of more than $1 billion to retired New Mexico educational employees.

Both of my parents are retired educators, so my family understands the importance of secure retirement benefits for educational employees. The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board (NMERB) plays an important role in the lives of our 46,000 retirees and 60,000 active members. They and the Legislature have entrusted NMERB with providing secure retirement benefits to all of New Mexico’s public educational employees and their beneficiaries.

I consider this a sacred trust. The NMERB Board of Trustees and I have consistently taken a proactive position to ensure that future retirees have the benefits they deserve, have earned and substantially contributed toward. Earlier assumptions for the plan never anticipated the increasing life spans of our retirees nor the stagnating number of educational employees to pay into the plan (the number of employees paying was virtually the same in mid-2000 and mid-2016).

Capital relief trades allow banks to meet their burdens for capital
buffers without selling off loans or cutting back on lending. Instead,
other investors take on the credit risk for some potential loan losses
through contracts. As the broader market for so-called synthetic
collateralizations booms after a much-needed healing following the
financial crisis, some investors see compelling opportunities.

“It’s
like selling insurance on bank portfolios,” says Bob Jacksha, CIO of
the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board, which manages approximately
$12 billion. “They are looking at more than just the economic return of
the profile, and they might be willing to take our insurance at better
rates than they otherwise would for those considerations.” Maintaining
customer relationships and staying in the good graces of regulators are
chief among them, he said. Click here to follow full article.

With all the bad news about public pension funds, the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board fund is reporting an 8.5 percent return for the 2016 calendar year.

The fund reached assets of $11.7 billion and grew by $939.8 million over the year after fees. Net returns have been 8.5 percent over the last five years after fees and 9 percent since 1983.

“The most important point is that our 8.5 percent return for the year exceeded our actuarial target of 7.75 percent,” said Bob Jacksha, chief investment officer.

Educational Retirement Board chairwoman Mary Lou Cameron said the board has made a strategic decision to diversify its portfolio, and this has reduced volatility over time.

The educational retirement pension plan covers close to 60,000 active members currently paying into the system and 46,000 retirees, ranging from public school teachers, administrators and staff to college faculty and staff.

NMERB will be having a rulemaking hearing as part of their board meeting on August 25, 2017. The hearing will be held in the ERB Albuquerque office conference room at 6201 Uptown Boulevard NE, Suite 203, Albuquerque, NM. The board meeting will begin at 9 am and the rulemaking hearing will be part of the agenda for the board meeting. An agenda for the board meeting will be available on this website in August.

Notice--July 1 is around the corner! If you're planning on retiring effective, July 1, 2017, your final documents must be recieved by NMERB no later than June 30, 2017 to recieve your pension benefit on July 31, 2017. If you have any questions please email: